Abstract:The study of stable and unstable manifolds, and their intersections with each other, is a powerful technique for interpreting complex bifurcations of nonlinear systems. The escape phenomenon in the twin-well Duffing oscillator is one such bifurcation that is elucidated through the analysis of manifold intersections. Two escape scenarios in the twin-well Duffing oscillator are presented. In each scenario, the relevant manifold structures are examined for parameter values on either side of the escape bifurcation. Included is a description of the role of the hilltop saddle stable manifolds, which are known to separate the single well basins (should single well attractors exist). In each of the two bifurcation scenarios, it is shown through a detailed analysis of Poincare maps that a homoclinic intersection of the manifolds of a specific period-3 saddle implies the destruction of the single well chaotic attractor. Although the Duffing oscillator is used to illustrate the ideas advanced here, it is thought that the approach will be useful for a variety of dynamical systems